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Distributed Energy Resources
Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company, the designated joint action agency for municipal utilities in Massachusetts, announced it has received a direct payment from the Internal Revenue Service for $2.34 million under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Electricity Markets
The state of Pennsylvania and Josh Shapiro, the state’s governor, on Dec. 30 filed a complaint against the PJM Interconnection tied to PJM’s capacity auctions. The complaint alleges that flaws in PJM’s capacity auction design threaten to impose significant new price increases.
Electricity Markets
The U.S. General Services Administration on Jan. 2 announced a historic long-term purchase of electricity in an agreement with Constellation New Energy Inc.
Electricity Markets
Talen Energy on Dec. 23 said it intends to pursue appellate remedies after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that it would not immediately address a Talen Energy request for rehearing of a Commission order that rejected an amended Interconnection Service Agreement among PJM, Susquehanna Nuclear LLC and PPL Electric Utilities tied to a data center in Pennsylvania.
Workforce
The Kansas City Board of Public Utilities has named Jeremy Ash its new General Manager, effective January 1, 2025.
Reliability
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation on Dec. 31 said it was monitoring the extreme cold weather events forecast ​across much of North America in January.
Generation
Vistra on Dec. 17 announced that it is amending the retirement schedule of its 1,185-megawatt (MW) Baldwin Power Plant in Baldwin, Illinois. The company now intends to run the coal-fired plant through 2027 instead of retiring in 2025, as previously announced, while still meeting federal Environmental Protection Agency retirement and pond closure obligations.  
Transmission
Relieving future transmission bottlenecks between northern and southern New England and accommodating more clean energy resources in Maine are the two main objectives of the New England States Committee on Electricity’s (NESCOE) proposal for a first-of-its-kind regional solicitation under the region’s new longer-term transmission planning (LTTP) process.